Check the Quality of Your Drinking Water Now

1 min

Have you every wondered what’s in your drinking water coming out of your tap ? if you are an American citizen you can check the quality of your water now online.

Check the Quality of your Drinking water

Few days ago, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a searchable online Tap Water Database, allowing anyone in the United States to see the quality of their drinking water by entering their zip code or local utility’s name online.

The data is based on 50,000 public water systems across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The search will reveal a list of the contaminants found in the drinking water, It’s a short breakdown about the health risks associated with the contaminant, and how these concentrations compare to the rest of the US and state.

It will also inform you about the potential source of the pollution, such as industry, agriculture, treatment byproducts, run-off, or simply naturally occurring.

The Effects of the Contaminants

“Americans deserve the fullest picture possible of what’s in their tap water,” EWG President Ken Cook said in a statement. “But they won’t get that information from the government or from their utilities. The only place they’ll find that is EWG’s drinking water report.”

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Although the EWG says that the vast majority of utilities are totally in line with federal limits, tap water across the country have significant amounts of industrial and agricultural contaminants that have been linked to:

cancer

brain

nervous system damage, or developmental defects.

Among the contaminants found in this new EWG database include heavy metals like lead and arsenic, Uranium, chloroform, nitrates from agricultural fertilisers, and the cancer-causing agent chromium-6, made famous by the film Erin Brockovich.

Just because your tap water gets a passing grade from the government doesn’t always mean it’s safe, It’s time to stop basing environmental regulations on political or economic compromises, and instead listen to what scientists say about the long-term effects of toxic chemicals and empower Americans to protect themselves from pollutants even as they demand the protective action they deserve from government.